MARBLEHEAD REPORTER: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Old North Festival Holiday Concert is back
While Covid-19 has again interrupted our traditional Festival Chorus Holiday Concert plans, we press on and adapt!
After last year’s forced absence, the Old North Festival Holiday Concerts return in modified form during this year’s Christmas Walk, on Saturday, December 4th at 8 p.m., and Sunday, December 5th at 7:30 p.m. Maria vanKalken, Minister of Music at Old North Church, celebrates her 33rd season as Director of the Festival Chorus – despite a recent fall and damage to her head and shoulder.
This year’s Concerts will feature the Festival Orchestra, and Soloists: Holly Cameron, soprano; Gabriela Fagen, mezzo-soprano; Kevin Hayden, tenor; Daniel Fridley, bass; and Michael Galvin, bass, in seasonal works for solo voices by J.S. Bach, Purcell, Handel and Mendelssohn, together with the Old North Bell Choir under the leadership of Liz Smith
While the Chorus will have to wait until next year to perform again, we will be able to enjoy the concerts as audience members, and will greatly enjoy singing the carols along with the audience!
The concerts will have a reduced capacity and last 75 minutes with no intermission. Proof of vaccination will be required for admission and properly-fitted masks must be worn at all times in the Church.
Tickets are available at Arnould Gallery and Crosby’s Marketplace; or online at https://www.onchurch.org/festivalchorus, and, with seating limited, should be purchased in advance. Further information can be obtained by calling 781.608.2782.
The format may be different this year, but all involved – orchestra, soloists and audience – will rejoice in being able to make music together again!
--Andrew Oliver, Essex Street
Stop the Shock
The recent debate over Bill H.225: An Act Regarding the Use of Aversive Therapy has again brought to light Massachusetts’ troubling and unique position on disability rights in the United States. The bill, brought by Rep. Danielle Gregoire, seeks to ban the use of electric shock as a punishment for disabled residents of the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC). It also seeks to ban hitting, slapping, pinching, food deprivation, and other forms of physical punishment at Massachusetts institutions, including the JRC. Rep. Gregoire and her allies have been trying to get this and similar legislation passed for well over a decade with no success.
The shock delivered by the JRC’s device, the graduated electronic decelerator (GED), is more powerful than a police taser, and only slightly below the lethal limit for current. The device is only used by the JRC, and only for the purpose of “aversive therapy” applied to disabled residents. Shockable offenses include whispering quietly, attempting to remove the device, crying, saying “No” for any reason, and standing up or attempting to go to the restroom without permission.
How did we get here? How did a state frequently lauded for its early advances in affordable healthcare, recognition of LGBT+ rights, and other progressive reforms become the only place in the country where disability is a crime punishable by torture?
I’m on the autism spectrum, and I grew up in Marblehead. Autism is one of the conditions the JRC “treats.” I’m in my second year of medical school, but I am not fundamentally “less disabled” or otherwise more of a person than the JRC’s residents. At the end of the day, the only real difference between me and the JRC’s victims is that I came from a family that wanted to communicate with me. Who saw me as a person. Who sought out resources, such as the Arc’s Spotlight program, that taught me how to interact with neurotypicals instead of assuming that I lacked the capacity to learn. Who always approached me as an individual instead of a problem.
Bill H.225 hasn’t failed yet this year, but it will if we don’t make it clear that this is not what Massachusetts stands for. Please contact your representatives, senators, and other elected officials. Spread the word on social media or in other news outlets. Listen to the disabled voices that tell you that we’re people and that we should have a say in how we’re treated. Demonstrate that you believe our lives have value and that we should be afforded the same rights granted to convicted felons, political prisoners, POWs, and, as of earlier this year, dogs.
Stop the shock.
--Algernon Lutwak, Robert Road